“This year we’re going all out we have cool t-shirts, {and} community members, it’s a little bit broader, I don”t know of any other schools in Virginia that have pride events like this,” said Camilla Hill, Assistant Director of the school’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs.

Hill said the school will have a party to celebrate National Coming Out Day this Friday and a coming out hashtag. To celebrate the entire month, VCU created the hashtag #VCUPRIDE.

VCU has celebrated LGBT History Month for years, but Hill said mostly they’ve targeted students and this year they wanted to go bigger and collaborate with the athletics department to celebrate the LGBTQ community.

“One of the big things is VCU is really committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects and making sure LGBTQ students and faculty and staff feel really welcome and included is a huge mission at VCU,” she said. “The athletics department really wanted to make sure and send the message that athletics is a part of that inclusion and a part of wanting to promote LGBT inclusion at VCU.”

The coming out party will be held in the VCU Student Commons in the OMSA office from 11:30 am to 1 pm. There will be music, pizza, a photo booth and crafts and the party will continue at the field hockey game on Cary Street Field as part of the athletic department’s Pride Games.

Greg Moon, Graduate Assistant in the Athletics Marketing Department for VCU said this is the second year the school has held the “Pride Games.”

“We’re doing an initiative to really support LGBT History Month,” Moon said. ”During these games we have Virginia Pride, Equality Virginia,Virginia Anti-Violence Project, the Gay Community Center of Richmond (Diversity Richmond), P Flag, and some others involved.”

The athletics department set up four games for this week including volleyball, field hockey, and mens and women’s soccer and Moon said the first 100 fans to get into the games will get a free VCU Pride t-shirt. Tonight, as part of the week of Pride Games, VCU’s women’s soccer will play Fordam at 7 pm at Sports Backers Stadium.

On Friday, Oct. 9, VCU’s field hockey team will take on St. Joseph’s at 6 pm. Moon added the organizations will either have a PA announcement or table set up at the games to provide students with information.

“We’re really using these events to showcase how far the community has come and create awareness for the student body of the organizations that are available,” he said. VCU also made a video called “If You Can Play You Can Play,” a project to support diversity and equality.

The video aims to “advance diversity, equality and inclusiveness by providing a common platform for VCU communities to discuss aspects of diversity, social identities, and human difference,”according to VCU’s website.

Besides the National Coming Out Day party, VCU has quite a few events coming up including:

October 10th - VCU will host other events including Equality Virginia’s “TIES,” the Transgender Information and Empowerment Summit at the University Student Commons from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday, as well as ”Queer People in the Stem Field,” an event sponsored by STEM and will take place be in the Engineering West Hall.

October 13 - a domestic violence panel sponsored by Chase Dreams Not Boys and AASE in HIBBS Hall at VCU and

October 15 – Celebrate National Spirit Day,a campaign where everyone is encouraged to wear purple to stand up against bullying of LGBTQ youth. Hill said people will get a prize for tweeting in their best outfit in either rainbow or lavender.

October 16 - the school will have a mixer in the student commons and a on

October 26 - Halloween Party

Hill said the school also plans to have a panel surrounding TQIA identities near the end of the month.

All of the events are open to the public and Hill said the school is encouraging people outside the VCU campus to attend. Stay tuned throughout the month as we keep you up to date with VCU’s LGBT History Month events.

Related Stories

As the only LGBTQ-focused art gallery in the South and one of few in the United States, Iridian Gallery is a treasure for the Richmond LGBTQ community, whether you’re an artist or just like to look at pretty things. And this weekend you’ll have a chance to help support its efforts into the coming year [...]